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Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Bigfoot Blues by Ricardo Sanchez | Blog Tour with Review and Excerpt

Author Ricardo Sanchez is back, with another Elvis Sightings Mystery!

The Blurb

She eloped with Bigfoot. Or maybe Bigfoot kidnapped her. Either way, I've been hired to uncover the truth behind Cindy Funk's disappearance. Me? I'm Floyd, and I'm a PI living my life as Elvis would have wanted. Not just in sequined jumpsuits. With character.

Cindy's trail leads me to River City, Oregon — aka the Mythical Creature Capital of the World — where I catch Case #2. This one from an eccentric billionaire who's lost a priceless piece of "art." Enter one dead body and I end up deputized to solve Case #3, tracking down a man-eating mountain lion. Or maybe it's a chupacabra. Or just an ordinary murderer. Hard to say.

I've handled my fair share of crazy, but River City's secrets have me spooked. With an influx of tourists arriving for the town's annual Elvis tribute contest — what are the chances? — I've got to save the girl, solve the rich guy's problem and leash that chupacabra before a second body is discovered. It might just be mine.

It was ten past two on a Wednesday and I was sitting behind my desk in the office I share with Franklin, a chiropractor. His wife had sent me looking for him almost four years ago, but she was such a harridan that once I’d found him, I couldn’t bring myself to turn over his location. He’d let me use his place as an office, rent-free, ever since.

I checked my watch again.

Wanda was flying back to Kresge today. I resented being dragged away from her, even for just an hour, but the man on the phone had insisted. It had been more than a month since my last case, so while Wanda packed, I came into the office to meet Peter Funk. And he was late.

The clock hit 2:15. I was about to leave when a very lost-looking man in his fifties opened the door.

“You must be Floyd,” he said, taking off his well-worn Caterpillar cap. His bald head had the baked look of someone who spent a lot of time under the hot Idaho sun. “Your Elvis outfit kinda gives it away,” he added.

“You’re Mr. Funk?”

He smiled weakly and bobbed his head up and down in the affirmative.

I pointed him to a seat and sat back down at my desk.

“So what can I do for you?” I asked.

Funk looked down at the cap in his hands and worried at a loose thread with his callused fingers.

“I need you to find my daughter,” he said and looked up at me. “You’ve got to help me. I don’t know who else to turn to.”

“I’d be happy to help, Mr. Funk, but with missing children you’re much better off going to the police.”

Funk stood up and slapped his hat against his thigh. A small cloud of dirt erupted from the dull blue denim of his pants.

“Oh, the cops won’t help me. Cindy’s eighteen. They said they can’t go looking for her if she’s just run off,” he said. “Besides…”

“Besides what, Mr. Funk?”

He took his seat again before finally blurting out, “She ran off to elope with Bigfoot.”

I would have laughed if Funk hadn’t looked so worried.

“Bigfoot?” I said. “That’s a nickname?”

“No, sir.”

Funk pulled a postcard out of his jeans pocket and handed it to me.

On one side was a teenage boy holding up a plaster casting of a giant footprint nearly three feet long. Across the bottom it read “River City — The Home of Bigfoot.” I turned it over. The postmark was three weeks ago in River City, Oregon. The note on the card read:

Dear Daddy,

I’ve fallen in love with Bigfoot and we’ve decided to elope. I won’t be coming back to Pocatello. I’ll write again soon.

Cindy

She’d put a little heart in place of the dot above the is in both Bigfoot and Cindy.

River City… The name was familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it.

“My girl, she’s a willful one she is, but Cindy’s never lied to me. Not once,” Funk said. “If Cindy says she’s eloped with Bigfoot, that’s exactly what she’s done.”

Why did I get all the weirdos? Was it the suit? Or the Lifestyle Elvis thing? Or maybe this was some sort of elaborate practical joke. I let out a low sigh.

A case is a case, I told myself. And this one was just too absurd to be someone shining me on.

The Review

Let me tell you a little about a funny, quirky cozy mystery I just read, Bigfoot Blues by Ricardo Sanchez. Bigfoot Blues stars (and is narrated by) Floyd (no last name, because it's unpronounceable), a private investigator in Pocatello, Idaho who is such a big fan of Elvis that he is doing the Lifestyle Elvis thing. Floyd seems to be more into the Elvis lifestyle than Elvis himself was, in that Floyd wears flashy sequined jumpsuits (sometimes with capes, even!) all the time. Didn't Elvis save the sequins and capes for his performances? And aren't private investigators supposed to be at least somewhat unobtrusive?

Bigfoot Blues displays Author Ricardo Sanchez's zany sense of humor very well. Here are some examples:Checking into a hotel

"Will you be parking a car with us?"

"Yeah, it's the old Camaro out front," I said, pointing out the lobby windows.

"Is it supposed to be on fire?" the clerk said calmly.

Meeting the sheriff in River City

"I'm a private investigator, not a tribute artist," I said.

"Then why the hell you dressed like Elvis?" he asked.

I replied with a line I've probably spoken a thousand times. "I'm a Lifestyle Elvis. I try to live my life the way Elvis did. Part of that involves wearing the jumpsuits."

The one I had on today was turquoise with an owl pattern on the back and black beaded bird wings on both breasts.

"That's the nuttiest thing I ever heard of," the sheriff said.

Looking for a lead in finding Cindy Funk

"Hey, why are you wearing that thing, anyway?"

"I'm a lifestyle Elvis. I live the way I think he'd want me to, and part of that is wearing the jumpsuit," I explained.

"You're weird, Floyd."

"You're hanging out in a cemetery trying to get lucky with Sasquatch."

"Okay, we're even."

I enjoyed reading about all of the trouble, oh they got trouble, right there in River City, with a capital "T" that rhymes with "B" and that stands for Bigfoot Blues. There are plot twists galore, what with the multitude of women either allegedly married to Bigfoot or eager to become BoBs (Brides of Bigfoot), the cryptotaxidermists and their creations, rumors of a chupacabra on the loose, a mysterious pharmaceutical company on the outskirts of town, and even possible government cover-ups. I was totally surprised by whodunit. I think you will be, also!

If you are looking for something that's a little different, a quirky mystery with lots of laughs, especially if you're an Elvis fan, I think you'll really like Bigfoot Blues by Ricardo Sanchez!

Three out of five kitties

Note: I received a complimentary copy of Bigfoot Blues in exchange for my honest review.

All opinions shared are 100% my own.

The Author

About Ricardo Sanchez

Ricardo Sanchez is a writer, toy buff, and lifelong comic book fan.

Elvis Sightings, the first novel in his Elvis Sightings Mysteries series, was released in September, 2014. Bigfoot Blues, the follow up, was released in May, 2015.

Ricardo has written several books for DC Comics, including Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Teen Titans Go! and Resident Evil among many others. His original project, A Hero’s Death, was a successful Kickstarter released in May, 2015.

In addition to writing, Ricardo is an Emmy award winning video and animation producer. When he’s not writing, Ricardo maintains a vintage toy blog, drives 70's muscle cars, and shops year round for Halloween decorations for his home in California.